THE NOA YEAR 2020/21 STARTS SEPTEMBER 2020. CHECK SCHEDULE FOR DETAILS

Fooling Workshops

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Frome 2018

"There was a lot I loved about the workshop. Im sorry its over. But most of all I loved how it relentless compelled me to connect with my heart and my truth."

D. Shaw, Bristol

Helsinki 2019

"I’m glad that no difficult themes or emotions were avoided. I highly appreciate all the conversations and patience people have in NOA. Such supporting environment is golden!"

Heli Vakama, Helsinki

Berlin 2018

"There are too many to mention, so I'll keep it brief. Let's just say that it has turned my view of myself and how I thought others viewed me on its head, and absolutely in a positive way. In that sense it was utterly transformational."

N.N.

Helsinki 2018

"Theatre-like playing, improvisation and sharing experiences were knitted together with the amazingly welcoming and talented warm people of NOA."

Heli Vakama, Helsinki NOA Workshop 2019

Stockholm 2018

"Jonathan Kay has a magical ability to create an atmosphere where complete strangers work on themselves very openly while supporting each other. “

N.N., Jonathan Kay solo Workshop 2018

Helsinki 2019

"What I feel is that I found new ways to look at and see myself and my depths and the world around me, new ways to make friends with them both. Found my self stretching the limits of my trust to others and found caring friends."

Jenni Johanna Parviainen, Helsinki NOA Workshop 2019

Helsinki 2019

"The fooling workshop touched, poked, shook and tickled something in me that was about to escape to the inner world for good. The constant feedback and conversation multiplied the dimensions of the exercises."

Heli Vakama, Helsinki NOA Workshop 2019

Weekend Fooling Workshops

Jonathan Kay and the NOA Workshops

As a guest, you can join a "Jonathan Kay and the NOA Workshop" just for the weekend, and dip your toes in to the World of Fooling. The weekend workshops are always the first two days of our seven day workshops. So if you feel like proceeding from here and if there are places left, you can just prolong your weekend to a 7 day workshop.

7 Day FoolingWorkshops

Jonathan Kay and the NOA Workshops
This workshop is is part of the annual program of the Nomadic Academy for Fools. So you will get the pleasure of working with those people who are part of the continuously working group called the Beginners. As fooling from principle is utterly non hierarchical and fully anarchical, you should not feel intimidated by the fact that there are people around, who have been diving deeper into the fooling world. You will actually benefit from a very supportive and intensive working atmosphere.

5 Day Fooling Workshops

Jonathan Kay solo Workshops

These independent workshops are held in classes with a maximum of eight people being able to join for the full five days. Working directly with Jonathan Kay, this small handful of people will benefit from an in depth and fully immersive workshop experience

10 Day Residential Workshop

Jonathan Kay

Now in its Seventh year, this is a fantastic chance to fully immerse yourself in a unique ten day residential workshop with Jonathan Kay in a beautiful farmhouse in the German countryside. This workshop was founded by a group that was interested in going deeper into the work with Jonathan, and the idea of a ten day residential workshop was born.

Annual Training

Every year in September the NOA starts with a new group of 8 people who join the full cycle of the NOA as a continuously working group. This group is called the Beginners. To apply for this, just contact us and we will invite you to the next NOA audition. You should have joined at least one of the open NOA workshops or a solo workshop with Jonathan Kay. Beginners will come together 6 times a year for a two week period in 6 different cities throughout Europe.

Facilitators

Jonathan Kay

Jonathan Kay is a 21st century Fool and the founder of the NOA. Jonathan is recognized as a leading performer in the ‘Theatre of Immediacy’ of Fooling, and is a highly respected practitioner and teacher of Fooling workshops. His work with audiences is internationally known. Jonathan is founder of the largest street theatre festival in the UK, The Hat Fair. He has performed and taught in Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, South Korea, Scotland, Barcelona, Bosnia, Ireland, Jordan USA and extensively throughout the UK. He is part of the family at Glastonbury Festival, since over 25 years and has performed at countless festivals across Europe including Rudolstadt, Sweden’s ‘No Mind’ festival, Shambala, Secret Garden, Wilderness and the Sunday Papers Live in London.

Jonathan Kay, 21st Century Fool

“I loved the huge body of knowledge and experience that Jonathan imparted. I enjoyed his performing within the workshop and the constant sharing of how we were all doing. I admired the coaching and the feedback and the individual work.”

“Jonathan creates a sacred space and tends to it intensely. The exercises and feedback all turn the soil and nourish the seed.”

(Workshop participant feedbacks)

Join Jonathan on Facebook

The NOA Annual Training Groups also Work with

Loves to… inhabit the place of ‘secret, sacred, scared and scarred’… flip from one emotion to another… create characters from what is waiting to be expressed from inside… move physically and spontaneously… from a natural place beyond thinking… express the ‘twins’… enjoy conflict without trying to resolve it….make a tableau or ‘blob’ which bursts out into choreographed movement, dance and song… be in a rock band… be adored… let the imagination fly and feel full- filled!!! Also loves dragons and baking cakes.​

has been making solo shows for the past 6 years. Touring in USA, Uk and Europe. She makes her shows about taboos taking audiences into the unknown with lightness and depth in equal measure. She works with the taboo’s of Sex and death and alongside her work as a fool and an artist she is training to be a doula of Death and Birth. She runs an off shoot Fool’s company with her husband Christopher Murray called FoolSize Theatre which incorporates Street Theatre. Additionally she paints for pleasure and pupeteers for payment ( and pleasure). She has received Arts Council funding on to occassions to support her work. Her current research explores how the twin relationship found in the structure corresponds with the twin relationship of a lucid dreamer and how these may help in the preparation for and the process of death. She also worked with Jonathan Kay and others on Richard II during a 3 year process

“Once, while out walking, I saw 3 foxcubs. They were aware of me, knowing I was no threat & their trust gave me the exquisite privilege of witnessing their play. It is this that I would offer: a passionate commitment to creating & holding a space where nature, in its human form, can remember the essential wisdom of play (“fooling “).” Rosamund Hoskins trained with Jonathan Kay in Theatre of Now 2002/3. She continues to meet with two friends from that time (Amanda and Sophia) exploring the healing and supportive aspects of the work. Structure of the “second week” with Rosamund Each participant will be guided through a process of making a mask to “hold” an inner aspect of him/herself. The mask-making comes from a combination of the work of “BodySoul” and theatre work. Once the basic mask is made there are exercises throughout the week to cultivate a relationship with this “other” and the mask can be shaped and decorated to align with this. Alongside the more extravert work of performance there will be an emphasis on creating a sense of safety and freedom in which to explore the inner world. Rosamund is a piano teacher. She also teachers the Alexander Technique and there may be opportunities to experience this work where appropriate and useful.​

Jolie Booth is a cutting edge artist and theatre producer with a passion for making creative and innovative work in a wide variety of mediums. She has a wide range of interests that cover all aspects of the creative industry from event management, producing and consultancy, to performing, directing, designing and writing; with her company, Kriya Arts, securing highly respected industry contracts early on, including six years with world famous fool Jonathan Kay and three years with annual street arts festival the Streets of Brighton. Jolie Booth is a dream weaver. Kriya (in Sanskrit “action, deed, effort”) most commonly refers to a “completed action”. It is the moment of transformation when a pattern of negative Karma is broken.​

Curator and artistic director for Frome’s Day of The Fool. Trained and performed with Theatre of Now (Jonathan Kay’s Company formed for Romeo and Juliet touring project, pre-Nomadic Academy for Fools) and the Festival of Fools Theatre Company born out of a work with Jonathan Kay on Shakespeares “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest”. Established own theatre practice under the name TheatreSpace, to perform in solo and collaborative projects up to present Day. Won The Guardian National ‘Silent Shakespeare’ prize.

The body of the actor leads the way…

physical exercises and practice, to see how a performer can use movement and voice to transit through the structure. The body as vessel for the imaginative narrator to traverse from 1 to 4 and back again. Body-led. Teasing control away from conscious knowing, in order to inhabit the dream… (while letting Mind support in the right way).

The ensemble as Body…

Chorus practice, moving and speaking together (often in inner conflict but still as one body) from different places in the structure. Shoaling and shape shifting. Landscapes and elements.

Where do I end and I begin?

The dynamic of individual and group, stepping in and stepping out of the Whole body to interact with it (letting the audience identify with the individual). Again, tangible theatre exercises and games to practice that movement. Led by physicality and emotion.

Also … seeing the audience as an extension of the Body of the Play (the audience aspect).

Workshops & Events

PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO CORONAVIRUS ALL SCHEDULED EVENTS ARE CURRENTLY BEING HELD ONLINE. PLEASE CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION